The State of Connecticut, like many others, had to create a way for residents to buy health insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act of 2010, better known as ObamaCare. Peter B. Nichol was one of the leaders who helped make that happen.

He first served as director of IT and then head of IT from September 2014 to June 2015 at Access Health CT, Connecticut's health insurance exchange. In both positions Nichol helped devise and deploy the systems that run Access Health CT, which went live on Oct. 1, 2013. A finalist for the 2015 MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award, Nichol recently joined PA Consulting Group as a healthcare expert.

What was the key to getting Access Health CT up and running? First, we brought in leadership with experience running large-scale operations. Second was understanding the controls to put in place and [the importance of] allowing people on the ground to voice concerns, so we can be proactive. And third, we had a very detailed approach to how we were going to check and go live with the exchange.